Pop Tartary is awash with sour psychic static: The Signal, a malign spectrum emitted by America’s most gorgeously horrible nightmares.
When The Signal manifests…
1) The Gate Opens
All nearby screens go to static and _______ begin to swarm out.
1. Rats
2. Black snakes
3. Crows
4. Hagfish, coiling through air as if it were water
5. Cockroaches
6. Flies
2) Something Wicked This Way Comes
The area is suffused with the fatigued yellow glow of a sodium bulb, and everyone present loses 1 point of Strength every round until they make a Save vs Paralyze. Once everyone had made their save, the following creature appears and attacks everyone present:
Incarnation of Ennui
Lumbering sickly radiance, immense grasping hands, wet ingénue eyes
HD: Total number of Strength points lost
Saves: 18-Strength lost
Damage: d8
Special Attack: Target must Save vs Paralyze or go last the following round
Once the creature dies, everyone recovers their Strength.
3) All Is Still
Nothing apparent happens. The party is now being followed The Noise, an irreal creature that wants to help them, but is only able to do so through spectacular acts of violence. The party will leave in their wake a trail of murder and mayhem, most of which tips the balance in their favor. At least until somebody notices.
4) You Change
To find out what happens to the ones exposed to the Signal, roll a d6:
1. Their eyes vanish, and their sockets look into a hissing field of static.
2. They now look grainy and washed out, like an old photograph.
3. Their shadow always looms behind them, black and twisted, like that scene from Nosferatu
4. Their voice comes from nearby speakers when they try to speak, but they are otherwise mute
5. Their breath smells like metal and cooking meat. Animals and children hate them.
6. Their face is always blurred, like on the people being arrested on Cops.
5) Deceit Rules
Pick a random PC. A Signal entity secretly tells them that an important (preferably seemingly friendly) NPC is secretly evil and must be stopped.
Pick another random PC. A Signal entity secretly tells them that this NPC will play a vital role in stopping a terrible, possibly apocalyptic plot.
A Signal entity secretly and separately tells each of the remaining PCs that a malign intelligence has seeded several of their comrades with dangerous delusions.
Which of these messages is correct is up to you.
6) Power Gathers
Those exposed to the Signal gain a random MU spell. They can cast it once before it is gone forever, but the must make Wisdom checks in times of stress in order to not cast it right then and there.
Noomancer
HP, XP and Saves as Magic-User
Noomancers are people who have a device that has Signal and can use it to warp the world around them. Spells are alien transmissions propagated through the Signal. A Noomancer starts play with 1+half level+Intelligence modifier spells, randomly selected from all spell levels of the Magic-User and Cleric lists. When a Noomancer spends 6 hours tuning their device, all remaining spells are replaced with 1+half level+Int mod new spells. They also must make a Save vs Magic or reality weakens. (Table compiled by Patrick Stuart)
